Effects of alternate day fasting and exercise on cholesterol metabolism in overweight or obese adults: A pilot randomized controlled trial

The objective of this pilot randomized controlled trial was to investigate the effect of alternate day fasting (ADF) and exercise on serum sterol signatures, which are surrogate markers of cholesterol absorption and biosynthesis. We randomly assigned 112 overweight or obese participants to four groups: 1) ADF and exercise (E-ADF); 2) ADF; 3) exercise; and 4) control. We studied 31 completers in this exploratory analysis and measured their serum sterol signatures using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. After intervention, most serum sterol signatures that correspond to cholesterol metabolism were significantly different between groups (p